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How to Practice Anusthan

Anuṣṭhāna is a disciplined spiritual practice requiring strict adherence. A short retreat of five days is insufficient for profound attainment without proper conduct. The practice involves systematic purification of the subtle channels through specific breath techniques. Discipline extends beyond the practice hall to include regulated eating, silence, and minimal activity. An ideal schedule dedicates nine hours daily to sādhanā, including prāṇāyāma and chakra purification. This rigor purifies the system and promotes health. The practice is not a casual activity but a committed undertaking.

"Forget your usual eating habits. Just come, drink water, eat what is given, and meditate."

"Anuṣṭhāna should be for two, three weeks, or a month. But of course, everyone has families."

Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic

Let us understand anuṣṭhāna in a very simple way. We should not create complications. Our anuṣṭhāna is a spiritual practice. We perform many different techniques. Every day, we do a beautiful anuṣṭhāna, with over an hour of various breath techniques. Many do not understand them, yet they practice. But if you are doing this, what kind of precaution do you have? What kind of security is there? Let us come to simple answers. Imagine your spinal column, hips, and leg are broken. I pray to our paramparā that this never happens to anyone; it is only an example. A good surgeon repairs everything, but then instructs you: for many days you must lie on your back, not sit. The doctor gives precautions on what you must not do. Afterwards, the nurse says she will give medicine on time. But when she leaves, you think, "Ah, let's get up." You try, and again the spine fails, ribs break, legs give way. You cannot get out of bed, you fall down, shouting and crying. The nurse and doctor come. A good doctor will not discharge you but will keep you restrained. Now, consider you are in that operating theater—here, in your Saṅgam hall. You are doing things systematically under your surgeon's guidance. Sit down. Posture is proper. Relax. Concentrate. And now, prāṇāyāma: Anuloma, Viloma, and so on. After two hours, you come out of the hospital. But what do you do then? Laughing, eating indiscriminately. Some even go behind a tree to smoke. How, then, do you think your anuṣṭhāna will be successful? You are here only for five days. You received instructions on the first day, and on the last day, we ask you to vacate the rooms by 11:30. Your practice is only five days. In five days, a broken spine does not heal. So how can you think you will attain mokṣa, feel vibrations, gain a siddhi, or become a yogī? What can I say? It is only five days. Forget your usual eating habits, coffee, and fruits. Just come, drink water, eat what is given, and meditate. Only five days. Every year I tell you this. Today is your second day. Very good. What will the next three days be like? Perhaps it is better to take our bags and go through the forest picking mushrooms. Some years ago, the villagers were a little angry because yoga people took all the mushrooms from their territory. People also took plums and other fruits while walking about. The villagers were serious—it is not a joke. Parvatī, is this true? Stand up, please. If it is true, raise one hand. If not, say no. Thank you. This is about discipline. So, we stopped the walks. Otherwise, you should go for a walk at 5:30, return at 6:30 for prayer. After lunch, there is a call for that liquid food, that very nice vegetable—braisglam, nettles. Yes, nettles. That and a hot liquid juice, one slice on the plate, then go for your sādhanā. But we are running here and there. Then you come back, and in the evening, there is rice water, which is very good. Everything is beautiful. One week of this is called anuṣṭhāna. If you do it, you return home very healthy. I am happy you are doing something. Our Tilak needs support; it is so beautifully decorated. Sevapuri and his friends worked hard for five years with beautiful machines. He brings raw coffee seeds and processes them. I stood there watching, thinking, "This is hard work for coffee." All machines are very clean, and you enjoy that coffee. That is okay. So, if you cannot practice properly, you should at least give your profit to our Tilak. All year, we make prayers: "Gurudev, when will the bhaktas come to the Tilak? We are ready to make a tilak. Come, have coffee." That is something very good. And then you have Śiva lassie. I never saw Śiva drinking lassie, but it is also very good. We have been doing it for many years. What I am saying is not a joke. Do you think you can, starting tomorrow, be very silent, eat very little, drink warm or cold water? Then you would be truly relaxed and able to meditate, to be released and concentrated. On the first day, everything is good. On the second, you will be hungry. On the third, more tired. On the fourth, perfect. On the fifth, like levitation. On the sixth, take your luggage and go. Therefore, you must train at home so you can do it here. That is Anuṣṭhāna. Anuṣṭhāna should be for two, three weeks, or a month. But of course, everyone has families. So, at least while we are here, we should practice purifying our Iḍā, Piṅgalā, and Suṣumṇā. It is not easy to purify these nerve systems. We are not pulling air into the nerves. No, we cannot put any air in our nerves. Even doctors cannot do it with an injection. Be careful: there should be no drop of air in the nerves. Long ago, I was with Gurujī abroad in Rajasthan. I was a little boy, not a sannyāsī. There was a very good devotee of Gurujī. Whenever Gurujī went to that city, they invited him to stay in their house. Gurujī had a nice, separate room. I was also there. Gurujī did his sādhanā, japa, morning and evening. The host had a daughter, about 16 or 17 years old. A doctor gave her an injection, and air remained in the needle. That air went into her brain, and she suffered greatly. So, do not think we are cleaning our nervous systems directly. We can inhale and exhale only till a certain point. Then it goes a different way. We also take in air without filtering; without good air, it cannot go into our lungs. I am not a doctor or a nurse; I am a yogī. But you can ask them: we cannot press air into the lungs, but we can control the pressure. Our lungs and ribs produce air inside, which we can bring through the mouth or nostrils. So, how then do we work on Iḍā and Piṅgalā? First, we clean the Chandranāḍī. This is only up to the end of our nose, where air goes in and out. But by purifying this part, we provide good air to the left side of the lungs. The same for the sūryanāḍī. When you smell smoke, it does not go directly, but smoke still enters the lungs. Therefore, we practice Chandranāḍī śodhana—purification. Then comes Chandra bhedana. Purification with good prāṇa, with good air, we clean the air of the chandra nāḍī. With good breathing, we clean the path. When it is nicely cleaned, we proceed; that is called Candra-bhedana. Bhedana means we can now go through. That is very important. Then it is called moving from Chandra to Sūrya Bhedana. That we call Anuloma Viloma. We help to clean our sūrya nāḍī, and from the clean sūrya nāḍī, we also clean the left nāḍī again. We have no time. That is why our teacher gives you 10 minutes, 5 minutes, 6 minutes, 2 minutes. That is nothing. We should do Candra Śodhana for half an hour or an hour. Then you will feel how nice your whole body is, as if purified. Then Sūrya Śodhana for two hours—oh, beautiful. But what do you do? Sometimes you move and hit your neighbor's head. Because when we purify the nerve systems, they become so pure, and good oxygen comes. We become very relaxed. Sometimes we need to adjust so we can hold this pure air. From six to nine in the morning, you clean the Iḍā Nāḍī and Piṅgalā Nāḍī—Chandra and Sūrya. After Chandra Bhedana and Sūrya Bhedana, you do Anuloma Viloma, each for an hour. Then relax for two minutes and go for lunch. You will come from the Saṅgam to Tilak, or to Śiva, so pure and clean, with a very good appetite. But this is for five, six, or seven days. What is Anuṣṭhāna? What is Kriyā? This is also kriyā. So, only this prāṇāyāma for three hours, half an hour to eat (including going to the bathroom), and 15 minutes walking to your sādhanā spot. I tell you, you will be so relaxed, and many diseases will leave. We purify, then there is chanting, then we work on our different chakras. This is from ten o'clock till one o'clock—another three hours of Chakra Śodhana, done peacefully. Then you relax a little, have a small bite or juice. Liquid, so we do not need a cook. How nice. After that, eating takes fourteen minutes. You drink a liquid and have 40 minutes for washing and bathroom. At 2 o'clock, you go to sādhanā again: 2, 3, 4, 5—another three hours. So, nine hours a day. That is a beautiful anuṣṭhāna. Then you come to eat, then to the satsaṅg and bhajans, the prayers. Again, you get good air. These bhajans create a resonance, which is also a kind of energy purification. The negative awakens, the positive awakens. That is Anuṣṭhāna, my dear. Those who have diabetes, of course, should take food according to their diet. Those with low blood pressure must manage accordingly. But those without diabetes or low pressure, if you are hungry and say, "My blood pressure is down, I must have two pieces of bread," how should we know how quickly your condition changes? In such a case, take something sweet—pure sugar or honey—to keep the hunger, the little pangs, down. I think tomorrow, with nine hours of sādhanā and a lecture for others, you will have telepathy in your sādhanā. My voice will be there. That is the connection between master and disciples; we will arrange it. Your machine will play what I am saying; you will listen while doing sādhanā. See how it is. Otherwise, a lecture from 10:30 or 11 to 12 is very good, and the rest of the time, people will have training. You might later say, "Oh, Mahāprabhujī, I should have been in the Satsaṅg hall," or "Swāmījī, let us work here, standing and doing this and that." There are only three days left. Let us do better next time. Our Anuṣṭhāna is very beautiful. We cannot take a little time. A proper anuṣṭhāna—I tried once, twice, three times, four times, but I was not successful. That sādhanā lasts all week. You should not touch anyone except your parents or children. Sleep also in a certain place, best in your practice hall. Lie down, do kriyā (meaning yoga nidrā) yourself, then get up and do sādhanā. There is a designated place to eat lunch and dinner, and a place for breakfast. It is not a joke. There is one master who holds such a retreat for one month. To attend, you need a visa, as if traveling to another country. You send your health and personal information. They ask how often you have taken drugs, what you are doing now. Then comes the answer, and so on. The food is prescribed. You must sit, sleep in assigned places, and are not allowed to touch anyone. It is very strict. You cannot imagine how many people attend, though not as many as us. But they are not as good as us. We are the best. Yes, we are beautiful all the time, but you have to be a little serious. I have made many jokes with people. You listen from one side, and it goes out the other ear. How? Technology. That is the technology. I speak, you listen. You say, "Hanuman Purī," and I ask, "Did you practice?" You say, "No." From this side, I hear you ask, "Should we do this?" So, we are always talking here and there. At least we should take our time and do the sādhanā. From time to time, you can do your Bārikhātu Praṇām and sit again in your position. The Bārikhātu Praṇām has great health benefits for the body: good for the lungs, joints, breath systems, and concentration. There are five points to Bārikhātu Praṇām. Just as we have Yoga in Daily Life, which harmonizes body, mind, and soul, we must highlight these points for our bārikhātu prāṇām, starting from vajrāsana, then standing on knees, etc. We come back, and we should explain this to everyone so they understand its value. Someone should prepare these points for me. How many postures do we have? We have 28, 29. Why are we counting Vajrāsana width? Okay, this is eight. Good. Bring it nicely, not too long. What is the benefit? We should have a beautiful booklet or a foldable chart to give to all people. Everyone should have one thousand papers for the health of the people. This is something we give them for their health. It also includes prāṇāyāma, mantra, etc. It will be perfect, very good. It is excellent for drivers, long-haul truckers, taxi drivers, and for sedentary workers like dentists. Let it spread throughout Europe as a health benefit. Do you agree? Dīpa Narabhagavānakī Deva Puruṣa Mahādeva Satguru Svāmī Madhvanājī Bhagavānakī.

This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.

The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:

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